Random or Normal

ok so i was in a cash game earlier, played a couple of hands 1 tabling and i had such a bad start, i started with a stack of $1.00 and lost 50c in first hand, i called a donk bet with middle pair, got the check on the turn and they called my raise, and the river gave opponent 2 pair which they donked back into me again and i flatted to find that i had been rivered

Then a few hands later i manage to lose the rest of this ammount with A Q
i re raised an EP raiser, and hit my middle pair, he donkbet into me, and as the board was scary i again re raised
board was K Q 7 (2 diamonds) so i have re raised here and get a call, the turn is a 9, and again i continue my agression, the river leaves me with 15c and another 9 hits, he donk bets me and shows 8 9s

so i start again with $1, Again i get A Q, i flop my middle pair from the blinds, and im putting the guy on a steal attempt (K Q 10 board all 3 hearts)
i get him all in, he calls with 10 6 (he had to hit his flush for a 6 high flush without knowing if i have a flush draw too)
he hit his flush and i didnt have that draw

so thats another $1 down

then yes i get it all back, but when i check my Poker tracker my showdown is in the negative, and my profit is all from the folds i get
now when i get to showdown i mostly have the best hand, but due to the fact that i dont play cash too often this downswing has made my stats look worse
but is it normal that my none showdown winnings should completely counter the little tiny loss i made at showdown?

Generally at 2NL your blue line should be where all the winnings are coming from and the red line should normally be around break even or even losing by a good amount which shouldn't matter because of how much you will be winning at showdown.

This sample size is tiny but over time and with more volume your blue line should recover and your redline should go down quite a bit.

There are tons of fish so don't go all crazy with middle pair and marginal hands trying to win at 2NL. I'm not sure if you have read blackrains book but it is really good for 2NL.

Also you should really be buying in for 100bb IMO.

redwards92 said:

Also you should really be buying in for 100bb IMO.

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That's what stuck out at me too.

Stop buying in short, and keep yourself topped off. Otherwise I don't have a lot of 2NL wisdom to impart.

Definetly need more big blinds to have room to maneuver, at 2NL many of these players are bad and really aren't looking at their holdings they are only looking at gee he only has 45 cent you cant even buy a cone from McDonalds for that much. They dont look at the blinds value just the cash so it don't hurt them to make bad calls just wait for the goods and Value Bet the heck out of your hands.

kingmunchers said:

this downswing has made my stats look worse

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What downswing? I can't see one.

Also, it's possible to have all 3 lines in the positive since 2NL is full of people who don't really know what's going on.

Usually you should be learning how to value bet more than bluff at 2NL though.

the downswing is between 900 - 1100 hands

i took 3 bad beats in a row and so my showdown winnings took a huge dip, but i won it back

this may not constitute as a downswing to many people but with my current bankroll 3 buyins was like 1/3rd of my bankroll

i dont really rely on bluffs, but i rarely try to get to showdown either, my opponents tend to give up when i bet 1/2 pots - 3/4 pots, in my eyes this is standard bet sizes regardless if i hit or miss, but i would never bluff my way all the way to the river, and thats why my none showdown winnings is so high in comparison

Eh? In terms of money won (green line) there is no downswing between 900 and 1100 hands

This is what mine looks like with 2nl. Just so your not alone with the ups and downs
Just under 15k hands at $22.50 in the green so far. Downswing was due to going up stakes and losing and then I hit tilt I believe after and had to adapt back which I did which was a huge step.

ahhhh looking closely it doesnt look like there is a downswing, because obv, i lost some - won some - lost some - won some - lost more - then finally won it all back
the "downswing" i was referring to was only for $2, but put into context thats a natural swing, which means it is normal
and as for the showdown, its irrelevant that this figure dropped down, it should be up in the long run, but due to unfortunate run on getting outdraw on the formentioned hands, thats why its dropped, but as long as i keep playing it should rectify itself

hope im understanding it a lil better lol

and i guess thats why we shouldnt really pay too much attention to this sample size, cus it doesnt always tell us the full story?
even though, this is probably the biggest sample size ive ever done in 2 weeks lol, because i only 1 table, and never more then 1-2 hours at a time

The green line is the most important one, as long as that is going up you're in good shape. But I agree with what redwards92 said above - the money to be made at 2nl comes from value betting your strong hands hard and not bluffing much (or at all), which will give you a positive blue line and a negative (or flat) redline.

As for downswings, 10+ buy-in downswings (-$20 in your case at 2nl) are normal for cash grinders so I wouldn't call your 'downswing' a downswing at all!

kk thanks for the heads up micromachine, i dont 100% know how much of a downswing is in fact a downswing xD since i have never been a strong cash game player, but never had a bankroll for cash either
my main game is MTTs, which is alot worse for downswings but the payout definately makes up for it when you finally get a good result

For 6-max micro cash games, i would expect the worst downswings to be in the 15-20 Buyin range. (Assuming you have a decent winrate)

Yeah, 3BI isn't a downswing, and if you're practicing proper BRM then a typical 10+BI downswing, while painful, shouldn't drastically hurt you. That's *why* we practice BRM, to protect us from those real downswings.

My record is about -30BI's at 50NL. That one really hurt.

dmorris68 said:

Yeah, 3BI isn't a downswing, and if you're practicing proper BRM then a typical 10+BI downswing, while painful, shouldn't drastically hurt you. That's *why* we practice BRM, to protect us from those real downswings.

My record is about -30BI's at 50NL. That one really hurt.

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Holy shit, you deserve a purple heart for that.

I ran 30BI below EV at 5nl before, can I have a purple heart too?

I just lost 2 BIs during my last session... what do I get?

A Tictac

Cafeman said:

I just lost 2 BIs during my last session... what do I get?

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a BJ.